DJ Jaffe

DJ Jaffe is Executive Director of Mental Illness Policy Org. and the author of "Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill." (Prometheus 2017). He served multiple terms as a director of the New York City, state, and National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), as well as the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, VA. DJ's op-eds on serious mental illness have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal and others.
DJ is focused exclusively on the 4% who are the most severely mentally ill, including those with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (Other organizations like NAMI and MHA focus on the 18% with milder illness, or the 100% who can have their mental "wellness" improved.) Mental Illness Policy Org. is a non-partisan think tank that develops policies to reduce homeless, incarceration and institutionalization by tackling politically difficult, but important topics like reducing violence, preserving psychiatric hospitals, and making it easier to civilly commit those who need help.